ANTIGENIC AND STRUCTURAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN AVIAN PARAMYXOVIRUSES ISOLATED FROM DUCKS IN HONG-KONG AND MISSISSIPPI, USA

Representative isolates of the paramyxoviruses duck/Hong Kong/75 and duck/Mississippi/75 were shown to be serologically closely related by haemagglutination and neuraminidase inhibition tests. The structural polypeptides of these viruses were also shown to be similar. For each of the isolates tested, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of SDS revealed a similar polypeptide pattern consisting, under reducing conditions, of seven polypeptides with apparent mol. wt. ranging from 46 000 to 190 000. Each virus had two glycosylated polypeptides with apparent mol. wt. of 56 000 and 71 000 to 72 000 under reducing conditions and 62 000 to 63 000 and 135 000 to 142 000 under non-reducing conditions.